Debunking a famous Christian phrase — and why that's good news for your faith



I don’t remember the first time I heard someone say, “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship,” but I do remember I heard it sometime during my high school years. I graduated high school in 2001, and the saying had already made its way to my ears in south Texas. I don’t know how much earlier it had been circulated.

For the longest time, I loved that expression. I remember repeating it to others, and I’m fairly sure it showed up in early sermons that I preached.

“Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship.” It rang true to me because I was aware, even in my teenage years, of how suspicious many people were about organized religion. The expression basically said to people, “God wants a relationship with you through Christ. That’s what Christianity is all about.”

But false dichotomies are a real thing — and that expression is one of them.

I think the expression “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship” is meant to be helpful and not dismissive of anything true. Those who use the expression are probably trying to cut through the negative impressions that some people have about religious practices and duties. They’re trying to show Christianity’s distinctiveness as something based on God’s grace rather than man’s works. And they’re trying to emphasize the good news that God has graciously pursued sinners through a redemptive plan that culminates in his son’s perfect atoning sacrifice. In Christ, we have a relationship with God that is characterized by pardon and life and peace.

But before you believe someone who says Christianity isn’t a religion, what’s the definition of a religion?

Defining terms is key in every discussion. And if someone is framing a “religion” as something that is inherently false and works-based, then Christianity isn’t that. But the definition of a religion is broader, more general.

Following Jesus is not some nebulous and vague notion that people can do no matter what they believe or how they live.

A religion is a set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices. These beliefs pertain to all manner of things, like whether there is a god and what the meaning of life is and whether anything happens after death.

Christianity is a religion because holy scripture identifies the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of Christians.

If someone says, “Christianity is about a relationship with God,” we should ask follow-up questions. What is this God like? What does a relationship with him entail? How is a relationship with God established? Where did Christianity come from? Why wasn’t this desirable relationship with God something we already had? What should be my response to this relationship?

Once we start asking and answering these questions, we’ve entered the realm of what Christians believe. And beliefs are integral to a religion.

Christianity also has practices. There are things like praying and fasting and giving and singing. There is assembling as God’s people for corporate worship. There is the Great Commission, in which Christ has called for his disciples to make disciples of the nations.

Following Jesus is not some nebulous and vague notion that people can do no matter what they believe or how they live. Christianity is a religion. We aren’t helping people when we distort what Christianity is.

And Christianity is also the good news about God’s merciful rescue of sinners — his unbreakable union with them by grace and through faith and in Christ. Praise God that Christianity has relational news! But God also has a relationship with non-believers — a relationship of enmity. Rebels against God are pursuing a hostile relationship with him. What sinners need is a new and reconciled relationship with God.

Christianity declares the good news of Christ being the way, the truth, and the life for sinners (John 14:6).

Don’t be reluctant to claim and explain that Christianity is a religion and a relationship. Rather than doing away with the term “religion,” we should incorporate the terms “true” and “false.” The Christian message is about true religion, true worship, true life. The man-made and works-based religions of the world are false because there is no other god but the living God who has revealed himself in Christ Jesus.

As we help people understand what it means to trust and follow Jesus, we should want to avoid speaking in a way that over-individualizes discipleship. After all, some people have a spiritual allergy to gathering together, submitting to authority, and living obediently. They like a “me and Jesus” version of Christianity because it costs them nothing, and they can maintain life as they see fit while claiming to be “spiritual but not religious.”

When we say that “Christianity is not a religion; it’s a relationship,” we unwittingly play into the problem of individualization that plagues the lives of many professing Christians.

Does Christianity teach about God’s new relationship with sinners through faith in Christ? Yes. But is Christianity still a religion? Of course. In fact, it is true religion. It is the true worship of and obedience to the living God. And it involves the understanding that Christ has redeemed a people from the nations for his glory. He has laid down his life for his bride, the Church.

When we help people understand what it means to trust and follow Jesus, we need to be sure we’re honoring what scripture teaches about discipleship. We are to follow Jesus with the people of Jesus.

This essay was originally published at Dr. Mitchell Chase's Substack, "Biblical Theology."

I'm thankful for the reality of good and evil



Christ is King.

Satan is real.

In a strange way, I'm thankful for both. It's not that I'm happy about the principalities and powers with which we do battle in this fallen world, of course. But I thank God for the wisdom to seem them for what they are.

'Wisdom is the recovery of innocence at the far end of experience.'

Satan is real.

It's a sentence I would have been embarrassed to speak just a few years ago. Perhaps you're familiar with that famous bell curve meme? At one end you have the simpleton, at the other the genius. The joke is that both extremes believe the simple, unadorned truth: In this case, Satan is real.

In the middle we find the educated modern — or midwit. Not for him a crude, three-word fact. Sentences and sentences of hemming and hawing, qualifications and hedges, intellectural frippery. That's where I was for most of my life. That's the sweet spot for the American elite and those who aspire to it.

That worldview worked, until it didn't. The first step to acquiring wisdom was realizing I wasn't nearly as smart as I thought I was.

The cover of the the Louvin Brothers' 1959 country gospel album "Satan is Real" regularly shows up on those clickbait lists of weird album covers. It's the kind of goofy kitsch I used to love with an affectionate sense of superiority.

It strikes me a little different now.

The brothers didn't hire a professional to design the cover of "Satan is Real," and it shows. The image — featuring a 12-foot plywood devil Ira Louvin built himself, backlit by burning, kerosene-soaked tires — has been widely shared for its kitsch appeal. And yet the eerie power and urgency of songs like the title track or “The Drunkard's Doom” can make you wonder if maybe they're right.

The Louvin Brothers' homemade hell can't compete with the far more immersive depictions of the demonic offered on today's screens. And yet few of these visions spring from genuine conviction.

We don't take evil seriously, especially not supernatural evil. But we're like the obnoxious preteen who's only recently outgrown Halloween, walking through the haunted house and gleefully pointing out how “fake” everything is. Just who is he trying to convince?

I remember how easy it was for me to dismiss the notion of supernatural evil.

The occult isn’t what it used to be. We’d need the firewood from a thousand Burning Mans to dispatch every witch casting spells on TikTok, but their “magick” tends to focus on self-realization and wellness, like yoga for people with purple hair and face piercings.

Child sacrifice in the form of abortion persists, but many of its practitioners are only dimly aware of the death cult they serve. Even the pants-soilingly grueling ayahuasca trips now in vogue don’t seem to pose any eternal risk; all spirits encountered are assumed to have our best interests at heart.

Current popular entertainment tends to reflect this shallow and naïve understanding of the unseen world. Rare is the artist who dares remind us of what might really be stake in these lives we lead.

This is why the sickening dread evoked by Irish director Liam Gavin's 2016 movie "A Dark Song" is so unfamiliar.

Two people meet in a remote farmhouse in rural Wales: a desperate, grieving mother, and the bitter, alcoholic occultist she’s hired to help her contact her recently murdered young son. They begin an arduous, months-long ritual, which writer-director Liam Gavin depicts with painstaking realism.

By showing how tedious and grubby the path to damnation can be, "A Dark Song" makes us ponder our own demons and the disturbing possibility that we’re not as in control of them as we’d like to think. Someday we may reach out to remove the mask, only to find that our deepest childhood instincts about what lurks in the dark were right all along.

“Wisdom is the recovery of innocence at the far end of experience,” says Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart. I'm grateful every day for a new chance at cultivating this wisdom — and I wish the same for you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Bible opened to book of Revelation found in devastated NC brings hope to Marine vet's family in Hurricane Helene aftermath



The family of a Marine veteran made a miraculous discovery of a Bible stuck on a fence post in an area of North Carolina absolutely devastated by Hurricane Helene. The Bible was opened to the book of Revelation — a divine sign, according to the family.

Hurricane Helene ravaged Western North Carolina with catastrophic rainfall in late September. One of the areas that was devastated by Hurricane Helene was the town of Old Fort, roughly 25 miles east of Asheville, North Carolina.

'So if that’s not a message, somebody needs to wake up.'

Marine veteran Scotty Swann had his home flooded by the high waters. The water was so high that Swann was forced to retreat to the roof of his house and had to be rescued by a raft.

Once the floodwaters receded, Swann's family began working to restore the flooded property and discovered a Bible pinned to a fence post. In an eye-opening coincidence, the Bible was opened to the book of Revelation. The Bible has become a symbol of faith and hope for the community.

A TikTok post with the caption "God is everywhere," shows a close-up photo of the Bible that miraculously survived Hurricane Helene.

The family of Swann saw the Bible as a powerful reminder of resilience and encapsulated it in a protective case.

Another TikTok video shows the wondrous Bible being encased.

According to Fox Weather, the brother of Swann shared a video of the Bible.

"This Bible was stuck on this fence post, open to Revelations," the unnamed brother said. "Of all the things destroyed, that was left open, and it’s sitting there, and we’re not touching it."

"So if that’s not a message, somebody needs to wake up," he noted.

The brother revealed that a man from South Carolina constructed and donated a cross made out of cedar to stand next to the miraculous Bible.

The woodworker, Joey Brown, put a plaque on the cross that read: "Donated to victims of Hurricane Helene."

Brown told Swann that he donated the cross to "spread the word of God and tell people that they're not alone in this hurricane and in this challenge."

Swann's brother said, "So this is just amazing on how people have responded."

Hurricane Helene unleashed approximately 30 inches of rain — or nearly four months’ worth of rain — in just three days on Western North Carolina in late September.

According to data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, there are 103 verified storm-related fatalities in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene as of Nov. 21.

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A liturgy for bread baking



This liturgy is designed for any time you step into the kitchen to make bread. You will notice the sections marked for a breath prayer and a collect — these are the places you can insert prayers specific to the season or the occasion you are baking for, or you can insert prayers of your own.

Mise en place

Begin by gathering your supplies: 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour and 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour; 1½ teaspoons kosher salt; 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast; 1½ cups room-temperature water; a three-quart mixing bowl; measuring cups and spoons; a bowl scraper; plastic wrap or a tea towel; a baking sheet, loaf pan, or Dutch oven; and, if you’d like, your Bible.

As you prepare your workspace, also prepare your heart and mind. Ask God to join you in this process of baking bread. Slowly breathe and meditate on these words:

Inhale: My soul finds rest
Exhale: in God alone.

Psalm 62:1

Mix

As you measure your ingredients, continue this meditative breathing. Feel the texture and temperature of each element between your fingers as you combine the dry ingredients together. Give thanks for the community of farmers, millers, and grocers who have brought these ingredients to your kitchen today. Give thanks for the bakers across generations who have passed down these traditions. And give thanks for the Christians who have clung to the closeness of Jesus in the baking and breaking of bread.

When the time comes to mix your dough, inhale and exhale with each line of the breath prayer of your choosing.Pour the water into the center of the well. With your fingers, slowly pull the flour bit by bit into the watery center. Thicken the water slowly, rubbing out dry clumps of flour that form. Contemplate how the substances transform within your hands. Continue mixing until all the flour has been hydrated.

Cover your mixture with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and step away to a silent place for half an hour to read, pray, or be still in God’s presence. As you do, pray:

God, may I trust that transformation takes place, even when my hands and heart are at rest.

Stretch and fold

Uncover your mixture once again and grip one side firmly in your hand. Stretch and fold and contemplate the change that has occurred: water flooding and softening the grain, bursting open its tightly wound but untapped strength. Stretch the side and fold it over the dough; rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat.

As you build both elasticity and strength, pray in this way:

Inhale: Oh God (stretch) who comes (fold)
Exhale: to us (stretch) in bread (fold),
Inhale: do not (stretch) let us (fold)
Exhale: go (stretch and fold).

Repeat four or more times, as needed, then cover your dough and let it rest for its long fermentation (8-18 hours). If you need to wait 24 hours or more before shaping, let the dough rest for four hours, then place it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake the loaf.

Shape

When your dough is ready for shaping, turn it onto the counter. Marvel at the beauty and strength of your dough, at the bubbles that signal new and growing life. Smell the scent of fermentation, tangy and a little bit sweet. As you divide, stretch, round, or fold, pray the words of the collect of your choosing.

When the dough enters its final 30-60 minute proof, relaxing into its newfound strength, repeat these words:

God just as I step away from this dough, asking the proteins to rest and the yeast to prove that it is still alive, I ask you to prove your continual steadfast love for me.

Bake

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425° (450° if using a sandwich pan or baking tray).

When your loaf is ready for baking, slide it into the preheated oven. If your oven door allows you to see inside, watch the dough rise, burp, then fall into shape. Pay attention to the smell that fills your kitchen in the minutes ahead. Find joy in the creativity of God, who made ingredients with the ability to change in this way and who gave humans the idea to combine them.

While the dough bakes, ask the Lord:

Creative God, where are you leading me in the minutes, days, and months ahead? Equip me for whatever changes are to come.

Eat

After your bread has cooled enough for you to eat, pick it up, breathe in its scent, and take in its beauty and nourishment. Let a smile form as you thank God for the ability to make something so delicious.

Let your eating be a prayer of its own, a sign of your gratitude to God as well as God’s good gift to you.

Adapted from "Bake & Pray" by Kendall Vanderslice. Copyright © 2024. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.

People keep quoting this Bible verse — but do they know what it actually means?



Some people love the verse, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). It’s on bracelets and bumper stickers. It’s on coffee mugs and wall art. Believers have often taken comfort from those words in Psalm 46. After all, God is the great rescuer, the ever-faithful provider, for his people.

Have you ever considered, though, that we might not be thinking of the right primary audience for those words in Psalm 46:10? What if the command — “Be still, and know that I am God” — isn’t spoken to believers?

Context and echoes

The opening line of Psalm 46 is a declaration that God is the refuge and strength for his people, a “very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). He’s the fortress, the high tower, the cleft in the rock. He’s the protector, the shield, the defender. Though circumstances are uncertain (46:2–3), and though nations rage (46:6), the people of God are stable and secure (46:1, 5).

The nations are not well. In Psalm 46:6, they “rage” and they “totter.” They’re unstable. The raging nations recall the scene in Psalm 2, where the nations “rage” and “plot in vain” against the Lord (Psalm 2:1–2). They rage like the dragon whom they serve (Revelation 12).

According to Psalm 2, what the nations needed to do was serve the Lord (Psalm 2:11). The kings needed to bow the knee and kiss the son (2:10, 12). The raging of the nations would not prevail over the Lord’s plan to install and exalt the one true king (2:4–6). This great king would inherit the nations (2:8).

When we read Psalm 46, we need to hear these echoes of Psalm 2.

These rebels should confess the truth of God’s unique and supreme existence and rule. There is no god like God and no god but God.

In the context of Psalm 46, there is upheaval all around. The cosmic chaos in 46:2–3 may figuratively depict the military and political threats that the people of God were facing.

The saints needed reassurance that earthly kingdoms would fall. The self-glory of this world’s rulers would fade under the bright light of divine glory, which the world’s true king would shine and embody. The people, and the city where the people dwelled, was secure because of the presence and power of God (Psalm 46:5, 7).

The primary audience

The final unit of Psalm 46 is 46:8–11. Let’s follow the logic of the verses.

In verse 8, we’re told to behold God’s works, which include desolations that he brings onto the earth. His judgments disrupt and overthrow the plans of his enemies. In verse 9, he breaks their bows and shatters their spears and burns their chariots. So much for their impressive weaponry! God’s supremacy is on display, and their human collusion and earthly strategies are a poor effort to undermine divine majesty.

In verse 10, God says, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Now, who is God talking to? He is talking to his enemies. The raging nations are the primary audience of these words. These nations have tottered in their frailty, but that fact hasn’t stopped them from hating the reality of God’s rule.

So God says to the rebels, “Be still.” It’s a command to stop what they’re doing. It’s a command to lay down their broken weapons. It’s a command to relax their grips and their arms. They should stop their rebellion, their resistance — and they should, “Know that I am God.” These rebels should confess the truth of God’s unique and supreme existence and rule. There is no god like God and no god but God.

The rest of verse 10 is God’s declaration that he will be exalted among these nations. Though enemies on earth oppose him, he will be exalted in the earth nevertheless!

Psalm 46:10 gives us the words of God to the enemies of God: “Be still, and know that I am God.” The nations should call upon the Lord for mercy, and he will receive them. They should cease their raging and their rebellion. They should rejoice in his provision of salvation for them, for Christ has redeemed a people for himself from every tribe and tongue and nation.

This essay was originally published at Dr. Mitchell Chase's Substack, Biblical Theology.